SoSpectacular

1 hour ago, B35 via Church said:

I just hate the way the B8 on the eastern portion of the route snails its way through (between, say, Rockaway & Flatbush)... At least with 18th, you can understand why it snails along the way, the way it does.... Outside of fanning, I can't deal with the B8... Far too slow & far too inconsistent for as "far" as it has to travel.... In conjunction with its route length, I'd say the 18th av. portion is the reason people might want to split the route.... I personally wouldn't do it, but I can understand why they would... ughk....

Yeah, it's a looooong stretch, from Coney Island Ave all the way to Cropsey? Sheesh. Lol

1 minute ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Betwee the mask and fare messages, you can easily miss the route info if a bus is coming at you quickly! I wish they could fit both messages on one screen so it takes less time to cycle through. 

Yeah, I get a lot of questions about what route I'm driving because of it...

On 9/4/2020 at 2:27 AM, B35 via Church said:

I don't feel that strongly about splitting either of those two routes, to be quite honest... The route I would split before the B6 & the B8, is the B82.

Yeah. In terms of length, the B82 is longer than both those lines, sitting at 12.8 miles with the B6 at 12.6 and B8 at 10 miles flat. Having seen the B8, its problem area is mainly 18th Avenue. Heavy congestion along that street

On 9/5/2020 at 6:02 PM, trainfan22 said:

Lol the shuttle buses are free yet the signs still show "Fares Required"

That message is tied to the same P/R code as the "MASKS REQUIRED" message

I had the easiest damn day since the middle of the epidemic when everything was shut down. People adjusted surprisingly well, there were a few who thought that the buses were still free and those who didn't have the fare, but a good run overall...

23 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I’ve been wondering this for a while, but can MTA buses get speeding tickets if caught by a camera going above the 25mph? 

I’m assuming they can but I swear I’ve been on some buses at night that were going faster than 25mph and we would past the speeding camera and I would never see that thing flash.  

Yes they can.

The cameras trigger if you are caught going 11 MPH over the posted limit for that stretch of road. You're not going to see a bus do 36 MPH very easily on these streets though. If the posted speed limit is 30, the majority of our buses do not go past 40 MPH, so, there's that.

5 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Those buses are so beat up and run down. They look like they’re almost 20 years old. Ridiculous.

Well that's happens when most of your exterior parts are made up of plastic and fiberglass...

4 hours ago, Jdog14 said:

So this question popped up out of the blue in my head, but what is the reasoning behind MTA ordering CNGs with the ZF transmission? Are the fuel prices for CNG more expensive nowawadays or what ? (considering every diesel has been Allison since 2017)

I've no idea what their reasoning is behind that idea, but I'm not a fan of the newer ZFs our XNs have. On the artics, they're marginally better though.

On 8/22/2020 at 6:18 AM, EastFlatbushLarry said:

imo the B64, B68 & B82 should display Coney Island ÷ Stillwell Terminal

I agree with you there.

On 8/16/2020 at 3:33 AM, NewFlyer 230 said:

The customers would have an issue with the fare resuming whether it starts now or later.  A lot of people in this city think that public transportation in NYC should be free. So I can definitely see people protesting this and I wouldn’t be surprised if the fare reintroduction gets news coverage. 

From experience, what's going on now with the buses right now is why they should NOT be free. Raising the fares won't do much good either, as the city is looking at a what? 30% unemployment rate? They should consider dropping fares to a more manageable $2 for the time being...

On 8/16/2020 at 11:17 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Well the  has been following ridership patterns. Every meeting I’ve been apart over the last few weeks has talked about how bus ridership has rebounded nicely, while subway ridership while increasing, is still low.

The only reason subway ridership is still low is because folks still have to pay to ride that. I'd take the train to make reliefs on the B16 or B43 and there wouldn't be much people or crowding during the rush hour like before! 

On 8/16/2020 at 1:26 PM, Ultimategamer12c said:

Well, #1076 was not too long ago on the B68 sadly I didn't  catch it but it was off surprise for today.

It was a B35 run covering a quick trip for the day

Fare collection resumes once all buses have been retrofitted with either the sliding partitions or the curtain. The tentative date for fare collection is somewhere in the last week of August, as that is the deadline for the installation of the partitions. 

I don't think we'll make that deadline. None of our buses have anything as far as partitions go, but then again, who knows.

22 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

If you're eating something, you may want to come back after you're done just in case.

So last night (well, technically early this morning, since it was past midnight) I was on the Q47 (bus 3584) going home after buying a few things. At 69th Street & Roosevelt Ave, some dude gets on the bus (presumably homeless). Anyway, the dude goes all the way to the back (I was in the last row, to the left and he took the rightmost seat). Anyway, not only does dude start putting some towel or something in the seat next to him, but he starts taking off his shoes, started picking his toes or something (IDK for sure, and IDC, but he was definitely touching his feet), and then starts placing his bare feet on the armrest, and eventually starts stretching himself onto the other seats in front of him, barefoot. He also placed his shoes on the seat beside him. Everybody (including me) left that back section as soon as we saw what was going on. It smelled a bit too so windows were being opened.

Since it was gonna difficult to get the B/Os attention, I reported it via Twitter, and got a relative quick response. They said they would alert road supervision, but I don't exactly know what they did, since I was getting off, and the bus doesn't make a return trip since it was the last bus towards Glendale, and that bus doesn't return to LGA in service. I hope that the bus got disinfected after it returned to the depot. IDK how long that process takes exactly, but if what I'm seeing is accurate, then said bus was out on the Q100 earlier (up to around 9:45 AM), so I don't know if said bus was disinfected, especially if it was on an earlier run. 

The last thing any operator wants to deal with is aggressive/unstable looking riders. The most we can do in a situation like that is open the doors and let anyone off who needs and to radio it in to supervision and fill out the incident report so it goes on the record.

Had some fellow get on my bus a while back. Looked normal, except he got INCREDIBLY irate when someone stared in his direction and the situation nearly got physical. I simply pulled the parking brake, opened the doors and half the bus clears out. It was my final trip of the day and I wasn't far from the end. When it all calmed down I continued on, situation defused.

On 8/13/2020 at 11:09 PM, trainfan22 said:

I hate that part of car culture, speeding on residential streets and extra loud cars, loud cars that are modded to be louder than they normally is is so corny to me.

A lot of people will use side streets to get around trouble areas due to high traffic volumes. Not uncommon with the last 5.5 years of changes DOT has made to the streets.

On 8/7/2020 at 3:29 PM, B35 via Church said:

As a Brooklynite, nobody's going to sway me into taking the to get to the Rockaways over a bus.... Smart man IMO... If I ever need to get to the Rockaways for any reason (if I'm not driving, of course), it's the Q35 or the Q53 for most occasions.... Hell with the & for damn sure, to hell w/ the LIRR... I don't even care that it's situated by the quote-unquote notorious Redfern houses, it's more that it's in the middle of nothing in-particular....

A bit off-topic... Funny you mention the Redfern Houses. I used to work with the youth there when the Police Athletic League had the cornerstone program there. That was some years ago. During the summers we'd take the  to get to our trip destinations. A lot of those kids aspired to get out of there someday. I haven't forgotten their faces, even though it's been 4+ years since I last worked over there.

1 hour ago, B35 via Church said:

I have two 2-part questions for y'all here:

1] What was the longest unlinked trip you've ever endured on any MTA bus route? (express or local, doesn't matter)

• If you can remember, what bus route was it & what were the circumstances behind it?

2] What's the most amount of modes (you can include rail transit) you've ever used to complete one linked trip within the city for a commute? (Do not include joyrides/fantrips)

• ...of those unlinked trips, how many of them included buses?

 

1] I've taken the B6 from end-to-end. Was riding with an operator friend of mine.

2] Getting home from when I used to work overnights in Nassau... Take the N72 to the N6 then the Q17. Apparently that was a three-leg transfer at the time. Imagine my surprise when I got a second transfer hopping on the Q17.

6 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

This is my sentiment for pretty much anything made nowadays..... Apparently, Instant gratification (as in, immediate consumption) > Shelf life.

All about cutting corners to save a buck...

On 7/26/2020 at 8:32 PM, Kriston Lewis said:

So it looks at if there are extra B68 trips running between Neptune Av/Brighton Beach station and what I assume is the Ditmas Av  station on the weekends to replace train service. I have counted at least four buses make the right from Cortelyou Road onto CIA. Either that or I’ve had too many drinks.

Yeah they're basically "shuttles" on the weekends. I'm on the 68 this pick...

On 7/21/2020 at 7:44 PM, B35 via Church said:

The transition from riders getting used to boarding the backs of buses & riding freely, to going back to front door entry & having to pay, will not go over too well - especially when tensions are as high, regarding everything else going on right now in this city/country......

B/o's, be safe out there.

It's gonna a rough transition but we'll figure something out.

On 7/9/2020 at 12:18 AM, SoSpectacular said:

351, 420, 431, 434 all have screens and announcements - Version 2

Oops, forgot to add 255. Drove that one back in February

351, 420, 431, 434 all have screens and announcements - Version 2

46 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:

They didn't want to comprehend it.

I said the same thing (to myself).... Using operator unavailability as a reason for delayed service is verbiage/a dumbing down of the message that's been conveyed to the riding public before.... So that nullifies comprehension as a reason for omitting details....

Telling riders that "There is extremely limited B37 bus service in both directions." is pretty insulting..... Quite sure riders standing waiting for buses (or looking on some app or whatever) can see that...... It's like performing a major invasive operation on somebody without putting them to sleep & telling them "this is going to hurt, okay"....

The number of people who have smartphones but don't use them to see what's coming down the line is astounding.

"I've been waiting an hour for the bus!"
"What's going on with the buses?!"

2 hours ago, Bay Ridge Express said:

No explanation? Odd.

The reason is something the general public would not easily comprehend.

But, if I could possibly provide some input on that situation, there's a fair bit of open runs every day that don't have operators to cover them. Seeing how that was for Sunday, the B37 isn't a very frequent line and there aren't many stand-alone runs for it on weekends, most B37 trips are interlined with either the B63 or B70 instead.

On 6/25/2020 at 4:40 PM, Abba said:

Can they run more service . The problem is just going to get worse. But I guess if it’s free we just have know that’s It’s a risk.

Service is already at peak now that we are back to normal schedules. Social distancing is a must on the buses. 

On 6/22/2020 at 2:27 PM, B35 via Church said:

Once upon a time, it used to be a breeze taking the Conduits from Linden to get to Green Acres during the course of the day - but now, you couldn't pay me to do that.... You can make an argument that it's actually worse than taking the Belt itself at times.... Don't know wth happened in the past decade or so with traffic levels along the service road/Conduits, but I wouldn't subject something coming from Bay Terrace to utilizing the Conduits b/w Springfield & Rockaway..... Even outside of structuring the QT42/43 as commuter locals, I can understand extracting the Q85 (QT43) away from Green Acres....

I see the attempt at addressing that gap (that's even unfulfilled with the current network) btw, but I don't really see too many people around there really taking an easterly/westerly bus for a bus that'd run along Springfield (worth having the QT71 do what's being suggested/inquired)....

Going back to what I was saying about the QT43, even though it wouldn't run to Green Acres like the Q85, it's still rather pointless having it serve the fringe of Rosedale like that (at the LIRR station) though.... It'd serve much of nobody in that neighborhood.... What makes the Q85 useful for Rosedale residents, is that stint along 243rd (although I will admit, the Green Acres branch is used more, if we were to compare the two branches).... Nobody coming off the LIRR over there is thinking about the bus, so if it's a matter of simply turning the bus around, they may as well end the thing at S. Conduit/232nd (last dropoff/first pickup) & use Brookville to turnaround - Since they're doing the whole refraining from overlapping riderbases thing with the QT42/43/45....

Vision Zero, speed cameras, reduced speed limits, intentionally mis-timed lights may have something to do with all that...